Progressive Grocer: Retailers Weigh in on Rising Swipe Fees at Senate Hearing
The Merchants Payments Coalition, which represents retailers, supermarkets, convenience stores, gasoline stations, online merchants and others, has urged Congress to bring competition to the U.S. credit card market, contending that Visa and Mastercard’s domination of the market has stifled innovation and caused rising swipe fees that are particularly burdensome for small businesses, drive up prices for consumers and contribute to inflation.
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Merchants Testify Before Congress That Lack of Competition Has Led to Soaring Credit Card Swipe Fees
The Merchants Payments Coalition today called on Congress to bring competition to the U.S. credit card market, saying decades of domination by Visa and Mastercard has shut out innovation and led to soaring “swipe” fees that are a burden for small businesses, drive up prices for consumers and contribute to inflation.
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American Banker: Merchants Lobby for Lower Swipe Fees Ahead of Judiciary Committee Hearing
Merchants claiming that inflation is exacerbating their ongoing woes as credit and debit card interchange fees continue to rise will air their grievances in a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday with top financial services industry executives.
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Bankrate: Card Networks' Swipe Fee Changes Could Raise Prices for Consumers
Any increases to retailer costs as a result of an increase in swipe fees will likely be factored into prices and trickle down to consumers as retailers try to recoup these costs. According to the Merchants Payments Coalition (MPC), a retail industry trade group focusing on reforming the U.S. payments system, the average family pays more than $700 a year in higher prices resulting from swipe fees.
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Payments Dive: Card Companies Called on Congressional Carpet
The Merchants Payments Coalition, which represents retailers, grocery and convenience stores, gas stations and online merchants, and the National Retail Federation praised Congress for calling the hearing and attacked the card companies for their practices.
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Merchants Welcome Senate Hearing on Anticompetitive Credit Card Industry Practices Fueling Inflation
The Merchants Payments Coalition welcomed today’s announcement that the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing next week on anticompetitive practices by the credit card industry that have led credit card “swipe” fees to more than double over the past decade and are driving up prices as consumers face near-record inflation.
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Quartz: Your No Annual Fee Credit Card is Costing You $700 a Year, US Retailers Say
But industry groups like the Merchants Payments Coalition say that by virtue of controlling the market—Visa accounts for 60% and Mastercard for 30%—those companies have the power to unduly inflate fees. ... “It is difficult to imagine any other market in the US economy in which two entities set prices for thousands of businesses that should be competitors,” the MPC said in March.
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USA Today: Credit Card Companies Adjust Merchants Fees, Consumer May Pay the Price
Leon Buck, vice president at the National Retail Federation, estimates the average family spends on fees about $700 a year -- an amount that will continue to climb with inflation since the fees are a percentage of their total spending bill. These fees “get factored into the cost of everything consumers buy,” said Doug Kantor, general counsel at the National Association of Convenience Stores. “This is bad for merchants, bad for consumers and bad for inflation.”
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Payments Dive: Lawmakers Seek to Cancel Card Fee Increases
The Merchants Payments Coalition praised the lawmakers' letter. "It’s very significant that lawmakers from both parties and both chambers of Congress have come together to stand up against the global card giants to protect small businesses and consumers," MPC Executive Committee Member Anna Ready Blom said in an April 15 MPC press release.
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Digital Transactions: Interchange Increases Will Exacerbate Inflation, a Growing List of Merchant Groups Contend
The NRF’s argument that the networks’ planned increases will make inflation worse echoes a similar case laid out last week by other merchant advocacy groups, including the Merchant Payments Coalition. The MPC on Friday said it welcomed a letter from both Democratic and Republican members of the House and Senate asking Visa and Mastercard to withdraw their planned interchange increases.
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